A profile of patients presenting at a low vision clinic in a resource-limited setting

Background: The university-based low vision clinic is one of the few low vision clinics in South Africa.Aim: To describe demographic and clinical profiles of patients who attended this clinic from 2010 to 2017.Setting: The university low vision clinic, South Africa.Methods: The record cards of all patients seen at the low vision clinic over 8 years were examined and the following information was extracted: age, gender, presenting visual acuity (VA), VA following low vision assessment, cause of visual impairment and types of low vision devices recommended.Results: A total of 621 patients were examined, comprising 45.1% males and 55.9% females aged 36.0 ± 18.2 years (range: 4–93 years). Many of these patients (33.7%) had presenting VA worse than 1.3 logarithm of the Minimum Angle of Resolution (logMAR) ( 6/120) at 4 m in the better eye, and 196 (31.6%) had presenting VA of worse than 1.3 logMAR at near distance. Following optical low vision assessment, 62.4% had distance VA of 0.9 LogMAR (6/48) to −0.2 logMAR (6/3.8) and 58.4% had near VA of 0.9 logMAR (6/48) to −0.2 logMAR (6/3.8). Albinism (22.7%), unknown causes (18.2%), cataract (15.5%) and macular diseases (12.2%) were the most common causes of low vision. Amblyopia (80.7%) was the most common cause of low vision in patients aged 20 years and younger, followed by albinism (68.1%) and corneal diseases (41%). Cataract (78.1%), macular diseases (64.4%) and glaucoma (55.9%) were the most common causes of low vision in patients aged more than 60 years. Telescopes (33.8%) were the most commonly recommended form of intervention, followed by magnifiers (29.6%) and protective measures (24.5%).Conclusion: Albinism, cataract and macular diseases are the predominant causes of low vision in patients attending this low vision clinic. There was a significant improvement in VA after low-vision assessment, particularly for patients with presenting VA of better than 1.3 logMAR (6/120).